Post by Michael Messer on Jul 9, 2010 12:22:13 GMT
(This is an appeal for support from Ian Anderson, founder & editor of fROOTS magazine. Hopefully giving Ian some coverage here will bring in a few subscribers)
Shine On,
Michael
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Dear Reader…
For more than 31 years, fRoots has been a central resource and key activist for the folk, roots and world music community. Ian Anderson explains how you can help us weather the current recession and keep on with that role…
fRoots has been one of the main resources for the folk, roots and world music communities for so long now that to younger people it has always been there! I know that many readers, artists, music promoters, record labels and more have gained greatly – on all levels from pleasure to profit – from our efforts down the years. Amazingly, we’ve now completed 31 years of publishing, every single issue on time, and I’ve just realised that somewhere in the next year I will pass the point where I’ve spent more than half my life editing this magazine!
fRoots has always maintained strong connections with the grass roots and operates outside of the mainstream music business. We’ve always been driven by the enthusiasms of our writers and readers, highlighting evolving names, often the first to write about musics that readers may not be so familiar with. Down the years it has been that deliberately non-commercial, activist approach that has helped give us our incredibly loyal readership for which we are so grateful.
Right now, like most other magazines, we’re in tight times. We sailed through the other economic downturns of the past three decades, but the current one has been more difficult. The record industry has been hit badly by recession, confusion over the change to digital, and widespread piracy and the fallout has hit even those of us who have deliberately stayed outside the mainstream music business. And now the shadow of severe government cutbacks looms over the UK’s live music scene, threatening venue closures and a great diminishing of tour and project support.
Meanwhile, we’re also seeing a contraction in the amount of exposure our music gets in the national media – radio, TV, mainstream publications – as their budgets get cut and less ‘risks’ get taken. Yet this is at a time when, by general agreement, we’re in something of a golden age for our music. So the role of fRoots has become even more vital.
Advertising has been hit hard for all the reasons mentioned above. I’m sure you’re aware that this isn’t restricted to music, and is an international phenomenon. Over in the USA, for example, there is now only one folk/ roots/ world music magazine left standing – the venerable Sing Out! – and as with fRoots, their strongest resource is now their readership. Faced with a major crisis last year, they put out an appeal backed by founder Pete Seeger and have already raised a remarkable $100,000 to secure their future.
Here at fRoots, we also need to look for extra support to help us through these times. Unfortunately I’m not as great an iconic founder as Pete Seeger, but I’d appreciate your ear!
If you are already a regular reader or always meant to be, please seriously consider our Lifetime Subscriber scheme. We set this up six years ago and have really appreciated those who have taken it up since. It’s a once-only lump sum payment to always get fRoots from here on, including free access to the new Digital Edition. Put simply, if we could add 50 to 100 Lifetime Subscribers at this point it would easily be the best recession-proofing help we could get, and somewhere down the line you come out ahead so it’s a way of combining patronage with long-term profit!
If you can’t stretch that far but are in the habit of occasionally buying fRoots in a UK shop, please subscribe directly instead. It doesn’t cost you anything extra but makes a substantially bigger margin for us: you’ll also get the magazine earlier, and if you subscribe for two years you’ll get a free CD too.
If you are an artist, a promoter, a record label person or one of the many others who have had enjoyed direct support from fRoots or seen benefit from our help strengthening the infrastructure, now’s the time to reciprocate by subscribing if you don’t already do so. We also really appreciate anybody who endorses the magazine and helps publicise it.
And finally, everybody, please help spread the word. Why not persuade friends to subscribe, or start them off with gift subscriptions? This could be particularly effective if the recipient is in the younger generation who may not yet realise what a wealth of inspiration and resources are to be found in our pages. We do know that once hooked, people tend to stay readers forever. So for that reason we’ve recently introduced a big UK student discount – for people under 25 and in full time UK education.
Thanks for reading this far, and for your continued support!
Ian Anderson
